Thursday, 29 November 2007
Japanese Service
Have just posted a reply to this post on Kirainet concerning no tipping in Japan (which actually isn't always the case) and ended up going on a bit of the rant that I might as well post here:
I remember working At Starbucks in Sydney and all the American tourists would be giving me AU$20 tips! One man gave me AU$50! I couldn’t really believe it!
Aussies in general though are tipping more and more. That’s why there are tip jars.
Concerning Japan’s service… I don’t know. The things you listed above equally annoy me. The habit of checking every bit of information with you? ANNOYING!
Me: 1 latte please.
Barista: Okay, 1 latte. Is that 1 latte?
Me: Yes, 1 latte.
Barista: 1 latte.
Me: Yes…. 1 latte!!!
It takes forever but they still do it even when there’s a line of 20 people. People always rave about the fast service in Japan but I find it about three times slower than service in Australia.
The polite Japanese also annoys me as even when I make it understood that I don’t understand keigo (polite Japanese) they refuse to speak natural common Japanese! The keigo also takes twice as long to say as regular Japanese and thus also makes the service slower than what I’d like.
Yeah, they treat you like a king… but’s it’s REALLY fake. Wherein Australia if a waiter treats you well it’s because he’s really wants to treat you well. It’s genuine. In Japan only about 30% of the time will you get genuine friendly service.
There are lots of stereotypes in Japan and the "good service" one like most of the others (most polite people in the world, everything's so clean, etc) are completely not true though appear to be so for those people who only visit Japan for a short period of time.
I remember when my Mum and brother came and visited a few years back and my Mum was raving on a daily basis how polite everyone was. I kind of thought so too but after the first 3 months or so I came to realise one big cultural difference:
In Western cultures we're raise to be polite. In Japanese culture they're raised to act polite.
What do you think?
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Labels: japan
posted by Brad at
10:29 PM
4 Comments:
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Welcome. My name's Brad and I'm about to start my fifth year in Tokyo, Japan though lately I've found that that defines me as badly as saying I'm from Sydney, Australia.
I totally agree with the "raised to be" vs. the "raised to act" polite comment.
But when ARE you supposed to tip in Japan? After more than a year in this country, I still feel guilty at times for not tipping (Kanadajin desu).
Kind of back like back home in Sydney I tip if they're done an outstanding job and I have extra cash on me. They almost always make a big fuss but I kind of force it on them. It's the same when you do a lot of things for Japanese people. There's very often a big fuss over receiving something though it doesn't mean they don't want it. Try giving your seat on the train to someone. ;)
"Just take the damn seat!!! You're 8 months pregnant!" Haha.
I also agree with the raised to "be" and raised to "act" polite comment.
I was so shocked after I got through the Honeymoon phase of living here and noticed how impolite Japanese can be. For example, in Australia, very few men would elbow a woman out of the way to get a seat on a train, but it happens all the time over here.
A Japanese friend explained to me, that they spend so much time and energy having to "act" polite to people they knew, that to complete strangers they sometimes go the opposite way, almost as a release. It kind of made sense, in a very sad sort of way.
I's agree with that completely. I think also there's a LOT of built up anger and frustration with people here. Hell, I've experienced it myself.